View Single Post
 
Old 05-26-2010, 09:08 PM
opoefc opoefc is offline
Absent Comrade
US Veteran
SWCA Founding Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: San Diego, CA. USA
Posts: 10,536
Likes: 3,529
Liked 6,881 Times in 2,796 Posts
Default

David, The connection of Al Johnson & DV Scotty was very much alive and well in 1935. Johnson & his wife were living in the "Castle" which Johnson had built, as retirees enjoying the healthful climate of Death Valley. Scotty was living in his cabin about 5 miles away. Johnson, a well known in the industry mining engineer, had connections to many of the mining enterprises in DV. The early advertising hype on the RMs started in the early 30s, so if you lived in DV and wanted an RM, you didn't have a corner gun store to place your order, but you did have AmPot in Trona as the closest place to your residence to have the guns delivered. Johnson's connections to mining in the area made him well known, so his friends at AmPot would have been happy to accomodate him as the delivery point for the guns. Johnson was always giving Scotty gifts and financial support, even though he knew Scotty was a con man & fraud insofar, as Scotty's claims of having a fabulous gold mine hidden in DV, Scotty was still his life long friend. While Johnson had lost money in the stock market collapse in 1929, he was still fairly wealthy and who else in DV could tell S&W "cost is not important." Some times you have to connect the dots to get to the answers. My cousin, Clarence Satterfield, was a old time one burro prospector in DV and knew all the players there. He introduced me to Scotty in about 1948 at Barstow, when Scotty was in town on one of his binges. Unfortunately I didn't know of the .22RM at the time, or I would have asked him what he did with it! Ed. #15
Reply With Quote
The Following 16 Users Like Post: